Justice Amy Coney Barrett defends Jackson jabs as ‘warranted’ in rare public appearance
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Justice Amy Coney Barrett addressed her recent controversial opinion on universal injunctions on Thursday, stating that her pointed comments directed at Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson were justified.

When questioned by the Free Press’ Bari Weiss about her unexpectedly sharp remarks toward Jackson, Barrett explained that she believed she “set the calibration right” in the majority opinion she penned in June.

“I thought Justice Jackson had made an argument in strong terms that I thought warranted a response,” Barrett said.

Barrett, who was appointed by Trump, spoke for over an hour at the Lincoln Center in Manhattan, marking the beginning of a series of appearances aimed at promoting her new book, “Listening to the Law,” during the Supreme Court’s recess.

“I personally tend not to be spicy for the sake of being spicy, but I am from New Orleans and everyone likes a little Tabasco sometimes,” Barrett said of her opinion on universal injunctions.

Barrett’s remarks came in response to a question from Weiss about a high-profile emergency order in which the Supreme Court blocked lower courts from imposing the injunctions on the government.

Such injunctions, which the court reviewed in Trump v. CASA, have become a point of contention with the administration as judges routinely block key policies of President Donald Trump, only for the Supreme Court to often reverse those orders on its emergency docket.

Barrett, who authored the opinion banning universal injunctions, accused Jackson of subscribing to an “imperial judiciary” and instructed people not to “dwell” on her colleague’s dissent.

Speaking on stage to the packed auditorium, Barrett said she has the “deepest respect for Jackson” and stressed that she was not attacking Jackson personally.

“We just disagreed about the scope of judicial power,” Barrett said.

“I attack ideas. I don’t attack people,” Barrett added, attributing the quote to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom she once clerked.

Barrett, a closely watched justice who has raised eyebrows for deviating from her conservative colleagues’ opinions on occasion, was adamant that she and all of her colleagues were amicable.

In a “lightning round” of questions, she was asked to describe each of the justices in one word.

“Chief,” she quickly replied when asked about Justice John Roberts. Justice Neil Gorsuch got “out west,” and her word for Justice Brett Kavanaugh was “sports.”

On Jackson, Barrett paused before landing on “actor, Broadway.”

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